9. SINCE CONFEDERATION. On 1 July 1867 there were great rejoicings in Canada for it was the birthday of the new Dominion. But at that time the work of founding a Cana dian nation was only begun; much remained to do. As it stood on 1 July 1867 the Dominion included only four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, (qq.v.) and of these Nova Scotia was profoundly dis contented and, since her people had never voted upon the question, desired to withdraw from the confederation. Nor did Canada possess the entire East. The two important islands, New foundland (q.v.) and Prince Edward Island (q.v.) still held aloof ; not until 1873 was Prince Edward Island persuaded to join the Dominion, while Newfoundland still stands apart. The vast Northwest, to-day the chief pride and promise of Canada, was not then included within her territory, nor was its entry brought about without discontent and bloodshed. It had long been a hunting preserve for the Hudson Bay Company, but in 1870 by paying to the company i300,000 to extinguish its rights Can ada removed every obstacle to her absorption of those regions. In 1871 British Columbia (q.v.) consented to enter the Union, but was long restless and threatened to withdraw unless a transcontinental railway was promptly built. With all thesejarring elements assuredly Canada, when confederated, had no real union, and the subsequent work of her statesmen has been chiefly to consolidate her scattered fragments.
The leader who played the chief part in this work of consolidation was Sir John Macdon ald (q.v.). In many ways, in wit, in intellec tual agility, sometimes in cynical carelessness as to the means he used to secure his ends, he was strikingly like Lord Beaconsfield; but whenever the vital political interests of Canada were con cerned, invariably, according to his light, he showed a whole-hearted patriotism. He was filled with passionate devotion to the British Crown and treasured for Canada the ideal that she should be a kingdom modeled on that of Great Britain, taking her place on equal terms as an auxiliary of the United Kingdom. He did not favor federal government, and would have preferred to give Canada one all-powerful legislature like that of Great Britain. But in these respects conditions were too strong for Macdonald. His cherished °Kingdom of Can ada') became the °Dominion of Canada° in def erence to the supposed prejudices of the Amer ican republic against a monarchical neighbor, and he was obliged to assent to a federal system because the French in Canada insisted upon a measure of autonomy only to be secured in this way. It was the pending °Alabama° question
that made Britain so anxious at this time to defer to the opinion of the United States. This and questions more directly affecting Canada were settled by the Treaty of Washington, 1871.
Macdonald was Prime Minister of Canada for the long period, 1867 to 1891, with the ex ception of an interval of about five years, last ing from November 1873 to October 1878. In evitably he did the work of proving the federal system which he had'helped to create. There was trouble from the first. When as a result of the bargain with the Hudson Bay Company Canada assumed jurisdiction in what is now Manitoba, some of the settlers already estab lished there objected to being handed over like cattle to a new government. Surveyors sent in by Canada were turned back; officers going into the country to assert Canadian authority met with a like experience; and at last the half breed inhabitants under their leader, Louis Riel set up a provisional government at Fort arry, now Winnipeg (q.v.), and defied the Government of Canada. They tried and sum marily executed Thomas Scott, a citizen who opposed their proceedings and they threw other leaders into pnson. See RIEt. REBELLION.
In 1870 it was not easy for Canada to assert her authority in the remote settlements on the Red River. She might not use for mili tary purposes the territory of the United States, which offered the most convenient route, and she was therefore obliged to send troops through the vast wilderness lying north of Superior. The late Lord Wolseley, then hold ing a military command in Canada, was chosen to lead a small army to Fort Garry and did the work with brilliant success. After a toilsome journey through hundreds of miles of wild and barren country Wolseley at length reached Fort Garry only to find that Riel and his provisional government had fled at the approach of the Canadian force. Rebellion crushed, the work of pacification was conducted partly with the aid of Mr. Donald A. Smith, later Lord Strathcona, an official of the Hudson Bay Company. Mani toba soon became a full-fledged province in the Canadian federation and has since played an important part. In view of the present status of Winnipeg, the third in Canada,. with perhaps 150000 inhabitants, it is interesting to remember that it had not even the telegraph in 1870 and that the railway did not reach the town until 1878.